Saving movies/dvds onto a hard drive

Question

Saving movies/dvds onto a hard drive

Hi - this is probably pretty basic but I'm at my wits end...I need help before the computer goes through the window...

I've made several imovies that I've burned onto disk. I had to delete all the movies from my Mac as I nearly ran out of space, but now I'm worried that if I lose/break the dvds, the movies will be gone.

So I bought a separate hard drive to save them on. But what I thought would be a simple process just doesn't seem to work.

Copying the dvd onto the harddrive doesn't seem to produce a useable movie - just separate audio and video files. How do I play this/copy another movie from it?

Or is there a better way of doing it?

Any help welcome - please use short words as I'm clearly a fool...

Mac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 31, 2010 5:48 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 1, 2011 6:39 AM in response to WellingtonChris

If you've burned the files to DVD then they are MPEG-2 format and would need to be converted back to DV Stream for use in iMovie.
If you just wish to have a "copy" of the DVD on the external drive do this:
Make sure the DVD and the external drive are shown on the Desktop. Use the Finder preferences to check the appropriate boxes.
Insert the DVD (and quit the DVD Player app if it starts). Drag the DVD icon onto the icon for the external drive and it will "copy". Use the DVD Player app to view it.
If you wish to ever edit these files you'll need third party software to convert them.

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Answer 2

Jan 1, 2011 10:30 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Hi Kirk - thanks for the reply! Still struggling though - I've copied dvds onto the hard drive before, the way you describe - but I can't find any way of playing them. If I try it through the DVD application, it says the 'media type is not supported'. If I Quicktime it also doesn't work; it just seems to consist of different folders, some audio, some video.

Any further thoughts you can offer will be much appreciated!

Chris

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Answer 3

Ziatron

Level 5

4,220 points

Jan 1, 2011 11:51 PM in response to WellingtonChris

I make movies using iMovie 06 and iDVD 11.

Once I have my movie complete, I delete the iMovie 06 file and the iDVD 11 project.

I only keep the image file which is small. With the image files you can play them on your computer or burn more DVDs (I only use DVD+Rs).

Backup your movies using a external FireWire or ESATA hard drive.

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Answer 4

Jan 4, 2011 11:38 PM in response to WellingtonChris

It isn't really clear what you are trying to save on the new hard drive.

Is it the iMovie project, so you can make further edits?
Is it the iDVD project, so you can make changes to the theme (for instance)?
Is it the finished DVD?
Is it all of the above?

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Answer 5

Jan 23, 2011 1:11 PM in response to Lennart Thelander

Hi - it's the finished DVD which I burned onto disk. I'm just trying to find a way of storing the content so I can make further copies if the DVD fails. I really thought this would be simple but clearly it's not! Any help you can offer would be most welcome!

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Answer 6

Jan 25, 2011 8:44 AM in response to WellingtonChris

I use a program that comes pre-installed, I think it's called Disk Utility in English. I use it quite often to make copies of finished DVD's.

Insert your DVD, open the app, select your DVD in the window and create a disk image. I save mine as "DVD/CD master". That will create an image of your DVD on your computer, the same size as your finished DVD. You can use Disk Utility at any time later to burn a new copy of your DVD.

I have only ever created master copies of my DVD's, I don't know how to make compressed, smaller files if you want to/need to save space on your harddrive.

Hope this is helpful.

Message was edited by: Doktor Kosmos

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Answer 7

Jan 25, 2011 9:27 PM in response to Doktor Kosmos

Doktor Kosmos is right.... Disk Utility is the app, found in Utilities in your Applications folder.

You can take any of your burned DVD disks and create a disk image file. It will be smaller in GB size than your iMovie or iDVD projects used to create the DVD disk. Each disk image file will be less than 4.7 GB (for single-layer DVD). You can save disk image files for future burns.

In the future when you create an iDVD project, create a disk image file of the project so you won't have to do it from the burned DVD disk. When you are completely finished with your iDVD Project, do a "Save as Disk Image" from within the project. You will end up with a disk image file. You can use it to burn your DVD disks, using Disk Utility. You can now safely delete the iMovie project and iDVD project and still retain the ability to burn more DVDs of that project from the disk image file.
I have saved ALL of my iDVD projects as disk image files. I did have to put them on a 1T external drive because I have so many (at least 150) but it is comforting to know that I can reburn any of them at any time.

Also, I think Apple's official position is that you cannot create a disk image file of a dual-layer DVD project, but I know many users have done so. If you want more info about that, do a search in the iDVD forum.

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